Guide to the Vass Family Papers

Three generations of the Vass family served the Presbyterian Church, both in the United States and in the Congo, during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Lachlan Cumming Vass I ministered in the U.S. South between 1860 and 1896. His son and grandson, Lachlan Cumming Vass II and Lachlan Cumming Vass III, both served at the American Presbyterian Congo Mission (APCM). Vass III's wife, Winifred (Kellersberger), served with her husband at the APCM, and later published several books and articles on the history of the Presbyterian Church in the Belgian Congo/Zaire.

Lachlan Cumming Vass I was born in Fredericksburg, Virginia, on March 20, 1831. His father was James Vass, a Scottish émigré; his mother, Elizabeth Braine Maury Vass, was the daughter of American Revolutionary War Colonel Abram Maury. Vass I graduated from Princeton College (later University) in 1850 and later studied law in Fredericksburg, Virginia. In 1857, he became a member of the Presbyterian Church; that same year, he enrolled in Danville Theological Seminary in Kentucky. After transferring to Union Theological Seminary (Richmond, Virginia) in 1858, he graduated in 1860 and was ordained by the Presbytery of West Hanover in 1861. He served in a number of churches in Virginia before enlisting as a chaplain in the Confederate Army, where he served in the "Stonewall Brigade" commanded by General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson. After the close of the war, he served as pastor of a number of Presbyterian Church in the U.S. congregations in Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia. In 1895 and 1896, he traveled extensively in Europe, particularly in Scotland, his ancestral home. In September 1896, he was appointed chaplain of the University of Virginia, but died shortly after, on September 28, 1896.

Vass I served in numerous administrative roles in both regional presbyteries and the General Assembly. He was also an author, penning Amusements and the Christian Life: In the Primitive Church and in Our Day and History of the Presbyterian Church in New Bern, N.C., among others.

On May 9, 1867, Vass I married Mary E. Jones. With Jones, he had five children: Lachlan Cumming II; Edward Smallwood; and three girls, all of whom died in 1877 from diphtheria.

His eldest son, Lachlan Cumming Vass II, was born on February 22, 1872, in New Bern, N.C. He attended boarding school in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and later earned degrees from Davidson College (1894) and Columbia Theological Seminary (1897). In 1898, he volunteered to serve as a missionary to the Congo Free State, working under the auspices of the Presbyterian Church in the United States' Executive Committee of Foreign Missions. In late December of the same year, he arrived in the Congo.

During Vass II's missionary service in the Congo, the country suffered under the oppressive regime of King Leopold II of Belgium. Rumors of violent acts against the Congolese people began to appear in the international press. Those forced to labor in the country's many rubber fields were tortured and maimed; many lost their hands, ears, and other body parts. Vass, along with other Presbyterian missionaries such as William Morrison and William H. Sheppard, took an active role in publicizing these atrocities, holding Leopold's regime accountable to the international community. Their efforts contributed to an outcry against the regime, which resulted in the Belgian government's takeover of the state in 1908.

Vass II's other missionary work in the Congo included the construction and command of two Congo River steamboats, both named after Samuel N. Lapsley, the founder of the American Presbyterian Congo Mission (APCM). The steamers carried supplies from Leopoldville to Luebo Station, the center of APCM activity. The first steamer capsized in 1903, drowning 24 people. Following the tragedy, Vass supervised the construction of a second Lapsley on the Clyde River in Scotland in 1905; the boat was dismantled for transportation to Central Africa, and rebuilt on the Congo River in 1906.

Vass II was an active and energetic worker, a distinction that earned him the Congolese nickname "Malu Malu," which means "affairs, affairs" or "busy, busy." However, due to his declining health, he left the Congo mission field in March1909. He returned to the United States, where he convalesced and gave lectures about the mission and his experiences in Central Africa. In June 1910, he sent his letter of resignation from the APCM to the Secretary of the Executive Committee of Foreign Missions. The Committee accepted his resignation, which was effective August 31 of the same year. Afterwards, Vass II served as a minister in a number of Southern Presbyterian churches. During World War I, he served as religious work director for the YMCA, living in France for a time. On June 14, 1911, he married Frances S. Sharp. Together, they had three children: John, Lachlan III, and Sophie. Vass II died on December 31, 1962.

Lachlan Cumming Vass III was born in 1915, in Germantown, Tennessee. He graduated from City High School in Chattanooga, attended Davidson College, and earned his Bachelor of Divinity degree from Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Following in his father's and grandfather's footsteps, he was ordained a minister by the PCUS Presbytery of Knoxville in 1940.

Vass III married Winifred Kellersberger in 1940. Born in 1917 at the APCM in Lusambo, Winnie was the daughter of Presbyterian missionaries. Her father, Eugene Roland Kellersberger, was a medical missionary, specializing in leprosy and sleeping sickness. Her mother, Edna Boshe Kellersberger, died when Winnie was just six years old. Winnie was raised in the Belgian Congo, but returned to the United States to attend Agnes Scott College, from which she graduated in 1936.

In 1940, the Vasses were appointed missionaries to the APCM by the Presbyterian Church in the United States' Executive Committee of Foreign Missions. Both became fluent in the Tshiluba language, and worked in the communications and publication fields during their thirty-year tenure in the country. They spent seventeen years at the J. Leighton Wilson Printing Press, where Vass III was director and worked with thirty-five Congolese typesetters, pressmen and bookbinders. Winnie worked on developing teaching materials and bible lessons, as well as translating various written materials into the Tshiluba language. Between circa 1966 and circa 1968, they served at the Protestant Center in Luluabourg (now Kananga), the provincial capital.

In 1971, the Vasses moved to Dallas, Texas. Winnie wrote numerous books, including The Bantu-Speaking Heritage of the United States, The African Heritage of American English, and 31 Banana Leaves, a book based on her experience as a missionary. Her 1986 book, Dr. Not Afraid, was a biography of her father. Together, the Vasses authored The Lapsley Saga, about the Congo Mission steamers built and operated by Vass II. The Vasses both died in 2010. They had five daughters.